And this one, my friends, is a doozy.

My friend @TheLegendofJill posted this to Facebook late Wednesday; I saw it this morning and had to take a look. What Jill posted:

1) Find out the song that was No. 1 the week you were born.
2) Find that song on YouTube.
3) Post that video on your wall without shame.

Jill was happy to post a video of Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Pina Colada Song),” a delightfully cheesy slice of the late 1970s. In response, I joked that no one was making music videos in 1966.

And oh, how I wish I was correct. Had I been born a couple weeks earlier, it would have been The Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love.” A week later? The Four Tops’ “Reach Out I’ll Be There.” And I would have been perfectly happy with either classic Motown song.

But no.

Ladies and gentlemen, the No. 1 song on Oct. 12, 1966:

Let’s be straightforward here. I know this song. I know it well. And I’ve always hated it. As in, The Association’s “Cherish” Is One Of The Worst Songs In The History Of Music Hatred.

So, Jill. I found the song. I found and posted the video.

But posting it without shame? Sorry. No can do.

And I thought I would share.

• Most Read: That was nickname, the post about the origin of the Uncle Crappy name. It was followed by did it again, a two-year-old post about the pizza party we hosted (more about that one in a minute) and flw,ftw, another two-year-old post about our visit to Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob (the one with the pictures I wasn’t allowed to post).
• Commenters: You’re all awesome, but Becky is the most awesomest; she was the top commenter for the year. Ms. Hellohahanarf was followed by Large, Kewyson, Gina and RPM. Thanks, y’all.
• How they got here, Part One: Twitter is how you got here, which probably means I should do a better job of linking new posts there (or, you know, writing more posts in the first place). Twitter was followed by Networked Blogs — the Facebook app that I just shitcanned a couple days ago because it sucks — WordPress, Facebook and Google Reader.
• How they got here, Part Two: This is the fun one. I think of myself as having pretty good taste when it comes to food and especially drink. So when I looked through the search terms that brought people here most often, I was a bit surprised. Following “Uncle Crappy” (the most popular search term), the searches that got people here were for “Seagram’s Wine Coolers,” “wine cooler drinks” and “IC Light Mango.” There is an explanation here. The wine coolers references were part of the pizza party post, because Beth left a mess of them in our beer fridge (Um, thanks?) and, of course, I reviewed the mango monstrosity back in June in what turned out to be the fourth most-read post of the year.

Thanks, guys — that was a pretty good year, on your part at least. As for me, I’m going to find a way to muster more than the 106 posts I put up in 2011.

Yes, I’m going to do it again.

Yes, we’ll be in the Mon Wharf parking lot, on the side closer to the Point, by 9 a.m. Sunday.

Yes, I still think this is the best way possible to start the new year.

No, it’s not going to be as warm as it was last Jan. 1.

Yes, I still think you should join me.

Yes?

Crazy Scary treated me very well last year — and it would do so again in 2011. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

We got to go through the haunt again, and it was even better than last year. The post-apocalyptic final section — definitely the creepiest for me a year ago — was replaced, but with something that was even better: A zombie-overrun Pittsburgh, with all kinds of local touches, like a Primanti’s-esque diner and one of the t-shirt stands on Penn in the Strip. I missed one crucial detail: Dudders, also known as the tallest zombie in Pittsburgh, who did her best to scare us towards the end of the haunt.

We didn’t have the same chance to torture Michelle and Ginny as we did last year, but they both got up close and personal with one of the Scarehouse’s zombies; that was scarier for Ginny than it was for Michelle — at least until the zombie hugged our favorite non-hugger.

Other good stuff:

• We went through the haunt with Gina and Andy (hint: foreshadowing). If you want to laugh as much as you scream while you go through a haunted house, you’ll go through with Gina.
• We had great food from Las Velas, but the baking orgy conducted by Mindy in advance of Crazy Scary was truly outstanding. Say it with me: Ancho-chili chocolate cupcakes.
• Watching Scott Harbaugh eat squid chips was pretty funny.
• We were part of an effort that raised $6,000 for Make Room for Kids and Christmas Crazy. Six. Thousand. Dollars.

And yes, there were prizes again this year. We bought raffle tickets, picked out a bunch of stuff we thought would be cool and went to town with our tickets.

And to our surprise, we did well. We won Andy’s Big Box of Meat for the second year in a row, and we also made off with Gina’s Pittsburgh basket, filled with stuff that will mostly end up on Mrs. Crappy’s desk. We were thrilled with both.

And there was one truly scary thing about this year’s Crazy Scary night. As we said goodnight to everyone we stopped to talk to Michelle.

Who was drunk or something.

Because she hugged me.

Parallel universe! Entered the Matrix! WHAT HAPPENED? AAAAHHHHHH!

1) Go vote for Draft Day Suit in Shape magazine’s Best Sports Blogs contest. Yes, I write for DDS occasionally, but not nearly enough to take any credit for this nomination. Sarah and Laurie and all the other talented folks who contribute — including our own Clumberkim — put in a ton of work to make DDS a great site, and they deserve your votes. It takes just a quick visit to the contest site, and there’s no registration required.

2) Get yourself a ticket to this year’s Crazy Scary event at Scarehouse. This is the fundraiser started last year by my friends Michelle and Ginny, the one where Ginny had to go through sprint through Scarehouse by herself and where Michelle had to dress up like a Disney princess. I don’t know a thing about what fun might ensue at this year’s event, which will be held on Oct. 19; but I know last year those two raised $3,000 for Make Room For Kids and for a Christmas toy drive at the Alle-Kiski Area HOPE Center.

And if that’s not enough for you, I understand there will be shenanigans. You can get your VIP tickets — which get you access to the party, food, a cocktail and a no-line pass to the haunts — here. Do it quick, though — there are only 75 tix available.

See? That wasn’t so hard…

OK. This not posting stuff is bullshit.

Not only does Saturday mark the start of Birthday Month — you knew I had to work that in there someplace, right? — it will mark the start of a month of daily blog posts.

See you Saturday morning.

Filed under: I Have No Idea Tagged: grumpy old guy, i'm an idiot, internet fun ]]> http://unclecrappy.com/2011/09/28/coming-soon/feed/ 4 uncle crappy 223923 http://unclecrappy.com/2011/07/05/surprise-2/ http://unclecrappy.com/2011/07/05/surprise-2/#comments Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:56:01 +0000 Uncle Crappy http://unclecrappy.com/?p=4919 ]]>

You may have already seen this picture on the Internet, but you haven’t heard the story behind it. Because I apparently wrote about it only on Plurk years ago.

This has to do with the startling notion that people you’ve never met might recognize you because they read your blog or follow each other on Twitter or Facebook. When it happens, it’s funny — and a little startling.

It’s happened to me maybe a half-dozen times in the last five years, but the first time was the best. I was sitting in front of a computer at the Carnegie Library in Oakland, trying to figure out if a CD I was looking for was out on loan. I was sort of in my own world, so I almost didn’t look up when a woman with an armload of books quietly walked up and asked:

“Excuse me — are you Uncle Crappy?”

The woman was Gina, and while I would have met her at some point, I was awfully happy she introduced herself that day. But when it happened, I was completely stunned that someone would have A) recognized me and B) had the guts to stroll up and say hi (although I know now that Gina pretty much has no fear about that kind of thing).

I’ve often wondered what my face looked like when Gina approached me in the library. I even mentioned that Friday night in the midst of a Twitter conversation that started with Michelle mentioning that she had accidentally worn her YinzTeam softball jersey — complete with her online name Burghbaby on the back — to a neighborhood block party. Michelle likes to keep her online stuff separate from her personal life, so, yeah, oops.

When I said I wish I could have seen my reaction to Gina, she disappeared from Twitter for a couple minutes — and returned with a version of the above drawing, an artist’s rendering of my face at that moment (actually, this version was her second shot; she added the jazz hands after I uploaded the first one as my new Twitter avatar).

Looks just like me, don’t you think?

And that’s what happens when I’m left unsupervised in the newsroom for eight hours.

Have a great Fourth of July, y’all.